Britain's Connaught has called in administrators to its main social housing unit after government cuts caused contract deferrals that spiralled into financial difficulties, Reuters reported. Connaught, which employs 10,000 people, said after the market close on Tuesday that its lenders would not extend support to the group as a whole. "As a consequence, the board is saddened to announce that it is in the process of appointing partners from KPMG as administrators of Connaught Plc and its subsidiary, Connaught Partnerships Limited," it said in a statement.

The Irish businesses of ICT services group Calyx have gone into receivership, The Irish Times reported. The formerly-listed company will continue to trade as a going concern while a buyer is sought. Tom Kavanagh of Irish insolvency practice KavanaghFennell has been appointed receiver. The Calyx Group, which employs more than 500 people in Ireland, the UK and Northern Ireland, was placed in administration on September 3rd. Geoff Rowley and Phil Armstrong, partners at FRP Advisory LLP, were appointed joint administrators of the business in the UK and Northern Ireland.

Halliwells partners look set to be asked to repay more than £2m in additional bank loans taken in 2010 as further details of the now-defunct firm's finances and partner liabilities emerge, LegalWeek.com reported. The firm conducted a voluntary cash call at the beginning of the year which saw 28 partners contribute a total of £2.3m, facilitated by professional practice loans (PPLs) taken out from The Co-operative Bank. Partners put in varying amounts depending on whether they had received a payout on completion of the firm's new offices in Spinningfields.

A Barclays PLC accounting executive said Thursday that the $45.5 billion price placed on Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collateral was a fair-market number reached after valuing Lehman assets, not an agreed upon discount price to sweeten the deal for Barclays, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Gary Romain, head of technical accounting for Barclays, testified Thursday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan in Lehman's lawsuit accusing Barclays of arranging a "secret" $5 billion discount when it purchased Lehman's broker-dealer unit in September 2008.

A major property mogul is contesting a principal lender’s decision to write down his property portfolio by £30 million to £35 million, Bridging & Commercial reported. RT Properties was taken into receivership by the Royal Bank of Scotland on Tuesday, after the bank took over all but two of property baron Roy Thomas’ assets. The company ran into trouble after it was charged a fixed rate loan breakage of £14.8 million by RBS. Mr Thomas owned Swansea Airport and Swansea’s Dragon Hotel and Marks and Spencer store.

Net mortgage lending by U.K. banks grew at a similar pace in July from a month earlier, while nonfinancial firms paid down debt at the fastest pace since March, data from the British Bankers Association showed Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The increased rate of debt repayment by nonfinancial companies was due to still sluggish demand for finance, the BBA said. However, it comes at a time when smaller and medium-sized firms are stepping up their criticism of bank-lending practices. U.K.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s multibillion-dollar lawsuit against Barclays PLC gets underway again this week when Barclays will call its first witnesses in the trial Monday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Lehman sued Barclays in New York bankruptcy court over the British bank's purchase of Lehman's brokerage in September 2008, shortly after Lehman collapsed. Lehman is trying to recover more than $11 billion that it says Barclays unfairly pocketed in the deal by failing to disclose discounts it was receiving on the assets it was buying.

More U.K. budget travel companies are facing insolvency after a combination of the economic downturn, volcanic ash, bad weather and strikes resulted in a sharp fall in holiday bookings this year, Dow Jones reported. Kiss Flights, which sold holidays to Greece, Egypt, Turkey and the Canary Islands, went into administration Tuesday, the seventeenth U.K. travel company protected by a customer protection scheme to go out of business this year, according to the Civil Aviation Authority. Another 33 companies under the same scheme failed last year.

As Britain continues to haul itself out of recession, the number of companies entering liquidation in the UK dropped by almost 20 per cent in the first half of 2010, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Figures released by the UK's Insolvency Service last week revealed that a total of 8,140 companies collapsed in England and Wales between January and June of this year, compared to 10,005 in the same period last year – a drop of 19%. Of these figures, 2,467 were compulsory liquidations while 5,673 were creditors' voluntary liquidations.